Net closes in on crossbow killer after 17 years

Detectives are poised to arrest a man for the crossbow killing of an escort girl nearly 17 years ago after making a DNA breakthrough.

Officers say technology not available at the time Patricia Lee Parsons was murdered has thrown up 'significant' new lines of inquiry.

The 42-year-old, who is known to have provided discreet 'personal services' to clients including a judge and TV presenters, disappeared in June 1990 after leaving her £500,000 home in Friern Barnet, North London, for a party at her boyfriend's restaurant in Essex.

But detectives believe she was forced to drive to Epping Forest, where her body was later found slumped in her white VW Golf cabriolet.

She had been battered and then shot three times in the head with a crossbow.

Two years ago a Scotland Yard 'cold case' review team took on the investigation, taking DNA samples from Ms Parsons' friends and relatives and reinterviewing people who saw her that day.